Mullum Malarum

Mullum Malarum
Poster dominantly showing Kali (Rajinikanth) wearing a brown shawl to conceal his lost arm Theatrical poster
Directed by	J. Mahendran
Screenplay by	J. Mahendran
Produced by	Venu Chettiyar V. Mohan
Starring	Rajinikanth Sarath Babu Fatafat Jayalakshmi Shobha Venniradai Moorthy
Cinematography	Balu Mahendra
Edited by	D. Vasu
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Production company	Ananthi Films
Release date	15 August 1978
Running time	135 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Mullum Malarum ([Thorn and Flower] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) is a 1978 Indian Tamil romantic drama film produced by Venu Chettiar and V. Mohan, and directed by J. Mahendran for Ananthi Films. The film features Rajinikanth, Sarath Babu, Fatafat Jayalakshmi and Shoba in the lead roles. The film has cinematography by Balu Mahendra, and music composed by Ilaiyaraaja. Mullum Malarum is based on a novel with the same name written by Umachandran. It tells the story of Kali (Rajinikanth), a winch operator who is over-protective of his younger sister Valli (Shoba), and develops a disliking for the Divisional Engineer Kumaran (Sarath Babu), after the latter suspends him from duty, which eventually leads to the loss of Kali's left arm.

Mullum Malarum was released on 15 August 1978, during India's Independence day and despite its initially poor commercial performance, it eventually became a massive commercial success after positive critical reviews and favourable word-of-mouth, and ran for over 100 days in theatres. Rajinikanth's performance as Kali the winch operator was also widely lauded, and is widely considered his best performance in his career. A 2011 poll conducted by IBN Live named Mullum Malarum as the public's "all time favourite Rajinikanth Tamil movie".

Plot

Kali (Rajinikanth), a hard working winch operator at a power house, brings up his sister Valli (Shoba) and is more than a brother to her. He flouts official rules by permitting the villagers to travel on the winch, for which he gets reprimanded by the new Divisional Engineer Kumaran (Sarath Babu). Kali starts disliking Kumaran for halting his helping activities. When Manga (Fatafat Jayalakshmi) and her mother reach the village with no assets and no-one to assist them, Valli kindly helps them set up home in their village. Manga is very playful and often teases Kali; once she teases Kali when he is on duty. He abandons the winch and chases her. In his absence, an emergency crops up at the power house and an enraged Kumaran suspends Kali temporarily for negligence of duty.

Very upset at his suspension, Kali gets drunk and swoons on the road. In a freak accident, a lorry runs over his left hand, which is amputated. Because of his handicap, he loses his job. Though depressed, he is confident of recovering from the situation. Manga feels guilty as she is the root cause of the crisis and happily agrees to marry him when Valli proposes it.

Kumaran likes Valli, but hesitates to express it. After Kali is terminated from work, Kumaran approaches Kali for permission to marry his sister. Though Kumaran is well educated and employed, Kali spurns the proposal because he hates Kumaran. He then makes arrangements to get Valli married to a loafer Kumarasamy (Venniradai Moorthy). Knowing that Valli too likes Kumaran, Manga requests Kali to get Valli married to Kumaran, but he stubbornly refuses. Hence she decides to conduct the wedding without his concurrence, convinces Valli and Kumaran for this, and makes all arrangements.

On the day Kumarasamy is to wed Valli at his house, Kali learns that everyone has left to attend Valli's marriage to Kumaran. He intercepts the group of Valli and other guests walking towards the venue and reminds Valli about his love and how difficult it would be for him to live without her. Everyone else ignores him and moves on, but Valli runs towards him, hugs him and assures him that she would not disown him at any cost. A proud Kali turns towards the villagers, Kumaran and Manga asks how can they face him now and perform the wedding? In an unexpected twist, he proudly offers his sister's hand to Kumaran. Though he still hates Kumaran, he manfully accepts his sister's choice.

Cast

• Rajinikanth as Kali
• Sarath Babu as Kumaran
• Phataphat Jayalaxmi as Manga
• Shoba as Valli
• Venniradai Moorthy as Kumarasamy

Production

"I get annoyed watching Hero-heroine dancing for songs mostly the both do same steps. It’s like watching two drunken monkeys dancing. That’s why in 'Mullum Malarum' I kept music as the background while the screen had lead characters expressing their emotions"

— Balu Mahendra, in 2009

Based on Umachandran's award winning novel of the same name, Mullum Malarum was the directorial debut of J. Mahendran, who was already a successful story, screenplay and dialogue writer. He did not read Umachandran’s novel fully; he just read part of the novel and got impressed with the winch operator Kali, his affection towards his sister and the way he loses his hand to a tiger. From then onwards, the screenplay was developed by him, deviating from the novel's plot. He decided to make the film without melodrama, overacting, excessive dialogues, duets or regular climax, and developed the screenplay accordingly.

Rajinikanth was playing negative and villainous characters in Tamil Cinema till then. Hence, Mahendran recommended Rajinikanth for the role to producer Venu Chettiar; he did not agree and asked for other options. However, Mahendran stuck to his decision and refused to direct the film if the producer was not willing to cast Rajinikanth in the lead role. Thus Mahendran and Rajinikanth began working together. Rajinikanth was paid ₹13,000 (about 1579.59$ in 1978) for acting in this film. According to senior film journalist Sreedhar Pillai, "Rajinikanth did Mullum Malarum just to satisfy his urge as an actor. He has always made it clear that mass commercial films is the way he will go." Ramasamy was recruited as the film's art director, and D. Vasu as the editor.

It was Kamal Haasan who recommended Balu Mahendra as the cinematographer to Mahendran for this film. After seeing the double positive of the film, producer Venu Chettiar expressed his displeasure to Mahendran, saying he was disappointed as the film had limited dialogues. He had chosen Mahendran to make this film since he had already proved himself as a successful screenplay and dialogue writer in Tamil Cinema. The producer and distributors did not expect a film with limited dialogues and more visuals from him.

Venu Chettiar decided to freeze this film's budget and did not provide finance when Mahendran wanted to shoot an important lead scene — the song Senthazham Poovil with Sarath Babu and Shobha. However, Haasan, a good friend of Mahendran, came forward and provided funds to ensure that the scene was shot and included in the film, giving it the necessary depth. Mullum Malarum was shot in Sringeri, Ooty, Kundha and Chennai in about 30 days. The winch operating scenes were taken at Glenmorgan near Ooty.

Themes

Mullum Malarum explores the concept that beautiful flowers need sharp thorns to protect them. Umachandran’s novel and Mahendran’s film transposes this into a sibling scenario. Much like in Bairavi, Rajinikanth and his sister have abusive parents in childhood and it is up to the brother to provide for his sister. But unlike in Bairavi, the siblings here are not separated and this leads to a very protective attitude on Kaali’s part for his sister Valli, bordering on obsessive love. There is a remarkable scene where after lashing out at her in a foul temper during the day, he applies henna to her feet at night when she is fast asleep.

Going beyond the central theme, the film is all about the extent of ego that can be sustained. Kaali is clearly the community’s alpha male and he does not hesitate to inform the world about this fact. His hangers-on constantly massage his ego and he gets to play god when he gives villagers a free ride—saving them miles of walking—on the power plant’s trolley of which he is the suzerain. Thus, it is a bit of a shock to his system when a presentable and educated male arrives in the shape of the divisional engineer. Being a subordinate, Kaali cannot really oppose him in any way and his frustration threatens to bubble over several times; it finally does when he is suspended. His feelings manifest themselves in a song where the lyrics go, ‘It doesn't matter whether Rama or Ravana are reigning, I am the king of my own conscience,’ a clear reference to the engineer's authoritarian yoke to which he is bound.

When Kaali’s arm gets amputated, he feels helpless and emasculated. Which is why the engineer, his bête noire as it were, becomes an easy target. Kaali refuses to see the benefits of his sister marrying above her station into wealth and education, even when his wife Manga explains it in so many words to him, or when his sister expresses her desire for the union. Kaali’s words when Valli abandons her wedding proceedings to be with her brother are revealing: ‘My sister has shown all of you that I am the most important person in her life. I need only that happiness for the rest of my life. And it is with that pride and arrogance that I give my permission for my sister to marry.’

The film's title Mullum Malarum can also be seen as a depiction of an over-possessive brother (the thorn) being over-protective of his younger sister (the flower).

Music

The film's soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, who also composed the background score. The lyrics were written by Panju Arunachalam, Gangai Amaran and Kannadasan. There are 5 songs in the film and 4 songs in the soundtrack; the song not included in the soundtrack is the film's "title song" Maan Iname that was sung by Ilaiyaraaja. Elements of the song Raman Aandalum were later used in the song Machi Open the Bottle, composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja for the 2011 film Mankatha.

In his 2011 book The Best of Tamil Cinema: 1977 to 2010, G. Dhananjayan stated that with Mullum Malarum, "Ilaiyaraaja proved his deep knowledge in background score", while praising every single song of the soundtrack.

No.	Song	Singers	Lyrics	Length (m:ss)
1	Senthazham Poovil	K. J. Yesudas	Kannadasan	4:35
2	Adi Penney	Jency Anthony	Panju Arunachalam	4:30
3	Raman Aandaalum	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Anjali and Chorus	Gangai Amaran	5:44
4	Niththam Niththam	Vani Jairam		2:54

Release and reception

Mullum Malarum was released on 15 August 1978, coinciding with India's Independence day. The film performed poorly commercially for the first three weeks. The producer stated that it was all over and gave up hope on the film's success. Both Mahendran and Rajinikanth pleaded with the producer to improve publicity for the film. However, he said, "There is no need for publicity for a film which is not running and a film which is running does not require any publicity" and did not raise additional funds. In the fourth week however, massive crowds came to theatres and after excellent reviews in magazines and word-of-mouth appreciation spread, the film became a huge commercial success. The magic did not wane till its 100th day.

Owing to its success, Mullum Malarum was remade in Malayalam by Sreekumaran Thampi as Venalil Oru Mazha (1979) and in Hindi by Bapu as Pyari Behna (1985). Rajinikanth's mentor K. Balachander, after watching the film wrote a letter to Rajinikanth saying "I'm proud to have introduced you as an actor"; this letter is the only one that Rajinikanth ever preserved. Though not entered for any awards by the producer, Mullum Malarum was honoured with several awards: The Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Film, The Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film, and Rajinikanth's performance earned him the Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize. The film was also screened at the Indian Panorama during the Indian International Film Festival in 1979.

Contemporary reviews

Ananda Vikatan (3 September 1978) said, "Mahendran has demonstrated amazing film making skills in this film... He has told the story in a sharp manner without long dialogues and makes us expect the same quality of films from him in future... The film exhibits Tamil culture throughout. The characters created history in a village atmosphere. We get the satisfaction of travelling to our village after seeing the film. This flower is one of those rarest Kurinchi flowers in Tamil Cinema."

M. G. Ramachandran (then the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu) told Mahendran, "I have no words to express my happiness. With this film, you have set a new trend in Tamil Cinema. You have achieved a milestone, which even if l had desired, l could not have achieved. You have demonstrated clearly that Cinema is a visual medium and have succeeded in that also. The films which came till now on brother-sister relationships were full of dramatics, including mine. However, this film stands apart and stands tall in realism. The last scene is new not only to Tamil Cinema but also to Indian Cinema. l felt like getting up and clapping. Rajni has acted wonderfully and realistically and this film will mark a big turnaround in his film career."

Reflective reviews

Amrith Lal of The Times of India stated that Mullum Malarum "revealed the potential of Rajini, the character actor." Playback singer Suchitra said, "Rajini's role as Kali in Mullum Malarum is my favourite for the following reasons — one, it is the most honest on-screen depiction of the brother-sister relationship; and two, though it was only his third film, he was brilliant — as the rough-hewn, obstinate winch operator and, in the movie's latter half, as a frustrated individual rendered immobile due to an accident, yet trying to retain his dignity." and called Mullum Malarum her "Favourite Rajini movie". In 2013, director Dhanapal Padmanabhan told K. Jeshi of The Hindu that Mullum Malarum "scores on content, craft and extraordinary screenplay."

Behindwoods listed Rajinikanth's performance as one of his "Top 12 acting performances". Directors K. Balachander, K. Bhagyaraj and K. S. Ravikumar have named the film as one of their "best ten" films. Mani Ratnam said, "When you watch a film, you know the way the shot was taken or the way the narrative was constructed. [Mahendran's] Mullum Malarum, for instance, was so startlingly different from anything that had come before in Tamil cinema. It really stood out. You need not know exactly what it is that stands out, but it would stand out for you. That is the beginning. There was something really special about the direction, Balu Mahendra's cinematography, the characterizations, the costumes, the compositions, the colours, the light, the way it was cut and, of course, the music. The sheer restraint in it is really remarkable. I think the real starting point is the script—the content and the narrative. The way a scene starts, the way it finishes—most of it gets played out there. And then, it's just a question of being able to translate it well onto film". In December 2012, Sreedhar Pillai stated that Mullum Malarum was "his [Rajinikanth's] best performance" and the film was among his most "memorable movies".

Further reading

• G. Dhananjayan (2011). "Mullum Malarum — Thorns also Blossom". The Best of Tamil Cinema: 1977 to 2010. Galatta Media: pg. 12-14. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
• Kavitha Muralidharan (10 August 2013). "Second coming?". The Hindu.

External links

• Mullum Malarum at IMDb
• Mullum Malarum at Upperstall.com